Farewell Vietnam!

So today is our last day in Vietnam and both Dean and I have certainly loved every bit of it!
This morning at 5:30am we arrived back in Hanoi from Sapa where we had spent two days trekking and one night in a nice hotel. It was an organised tour, which we were able to get discounted through Minh. There were mostly Australians on the trip, as there seems to be more Australians travelling in Vietnam than those from other countries. As the hotel receptionist in Sapa said, "Lots of Kangaroos here".
Sapa was established in the early 1920s as a French Station and is really high up in the mountains. The entire town is engulfed in a mist, which only lifts for approximately two hours each day from 12:00pm to 2:00pm. It was about 5 degrees during the day and felt like you were at the snow without any actual snow. On our first day we embarked upon a really easy 3 hour trek and had the afternoon for free time of which mine and Dean's was spent indulging in French pastries, tarts and hot chocolate by the open fire in a cafe. The next day we did a 6 hour trek, which was a bit hard on my ankles as it was long and VERY slippery. We all had gumboots on and at times I was almost up to my knees in mud. After we had been walking for an hour or so I became so renowned for slipping over on to my bottom that our tour guide insisted on holding my hand the whole way. Very embarrassing.
Prior to our Sapa trip Dean and I spent two days sight-seeing in Hanoi city. We visited Uncle Ho in the flesh, and went to the Ethnology, revolutionary and history museums and temple of literature. At the Temple of Literature we ran into the Australian couple from our Halong Bay tour and ended up spending the afternoon together drinking Beer Hoi, which was fun.
For our last day Dean and I bought some new fiction novels for Laos as we have flown through all we bought from home and those we bought in Hoi An. Dean bought a new pair of jeans as I stupidly left both our only pairs of pants in Sapa. Dean is off right now seeing the statue of Lenin whilst I went to a cafe near our guest house and indulged in my last almond tart and hot chocolate! Tonight we are going to see the Water Puppets, have a nice last dinner and then have a drink or two somewhere.
Vietnam has opened up a few new experiences for both Dean and I, however something particularly hilarious that I have never experienced before has happened to me a lot here. Vietnamese people love me! I mean come up to me and touch me face, want to pose with me in photos and they have never met me before, women say they want to take me home. At bars the men tell me they love me and ask if Dean is my brother. I say "boyfriend" and they screw up their faces and say"no, brother?".
Tomorrow we fly to Laos, which we have been told by so many people is wonderful and their favourite out of all places in SE Asia. Today marks a month since we left Melbourne. Time is flying by.

Hanoi so far

The bus trip was very painful. The seats in fact hardly reclined at all and the actual trip dragged on for roughly 14 hours. We arrived in Hanoi and by the time we got to our pre-booked hotel it was about 9:30am. For the remainder of the day I had a particuarly stressful time trying to organise requirements for my course, which the university hadn't told me about before I left Melbourne. Anyway...
On Saturday night we had a lovely and very filling dinner but as I had been unable to sleep at all on the bus on Friday night I was very tired. On Sunday morning we departed Hanoi early for our Halong Bay trip, which was fantastic. Although it was overcast and quite cool our guide was very funny and the boat was wonderful. We only had nine people on our tour, which was really nice as apparently on cheaper tours they cram the numbers in. There was an Australian couple similar age to us, who were really nice and a Scottish woman who is making her way back to Glasgow after working in Burma. The last four were a Canadian family who were nice but a bit strange.
We arrived back in Hanoi this afternoon at around 4:30pm and tonight are going to a Vietnamese man, Minh, house for dinner with his family as he knows my parents. Tomorrow and Wednesday we are doing the sights in Hanoi and on Wednesday night we are travelling to Sapa for a few days until the 18th when we return to Hanoi and flight to Laos.